We won’t force Reps to drop impeachment – PDP

July 27, 2012 by Olusola Fabiyi 

PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur
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THE Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday said it could not force the members of House of Representatives to drop their impeachment threat against President Goodluck Jonathan.

The party said the lawmakers had grievances but that it would intervene in the matter.

Also, the PDP on Thursday washed its hands of the arraignment of Mahmud Tukur, son of its National Chairman, Bamangar Tukur. It said Mahmud was an adult that was solely accountable for his actions.

Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Sam Jaja, said this while briefing journalists on behalf of the party’s National Working Committee.

Jaja, flanked by the party’s National Treasurer, Mr. Bala Kaoje, said, “Many of them (the House members) are PDP people, I agree, but they have their grievances.

“We will not also say that (because) they are PDP people and we will lord it over them. This thing must be attended to diplomatically, so that wherever anybody has gone wrong it will be sorted out and eventually this storm will definitely die down.”

The legislators, last week Thursday, derided the poor implementation of the 2012 national budget and gave the Federal Government a September 18 deadline for the government to achieve 100 per cent budget implementation, failure which they threatened to commence impeachment proceedings against the President.

Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, however said on Wednesday that the House directive was a tall order and that 100 per cent budget implementation by September was an impossibility.

Reacting, the Reps through their spokesman, Zakari Muhammed, said their resolution stood.

“The resolution on impeachment proceedings against Mr. President by September 18 if budget implementation is not up to 100 per cent stands,” Muhammed had told The PUNCH on Wednesday.

Jaja on Thursday said the PDP was aware that Jonathan had made some errors deserving of impeachment but that the party would do all to resolve the present face-off between the lawmakers and the President.

“It is not a fluke that they (Reps) are not making any sense, it is not also a fluke that the President is making errors that require impeachment,” the PDP Deputy National Chairman who told journalists that he was mandated to speak for the NWC said.

Jaja, however, refused to elaborate on the errors the President had committed.

He spoke further, “At times we overblow these things, but the party has set up machineries to look into all the grievances of the members of the National Assembly and the position of the President.

“There must be an area for the two parties to meet and this thing should be resolved in the interest of democracy in this country. So, there is no threat actually, as it were, it is the usual thing that happens in any democratic process.”

On the involvement of members of the party in the oil subsidy scandal, Jaja said the party was not worried.

In particular, Jaja said it would be wrong to condemn the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Bamanga Tukur, because his son, Mahmud, is among those facing trial for the subsidy scandal.

Apart from Tukur, Nasir, the son of Dr. Ahmadu Ali, a former National Chairman of the party was also arraigned in Lagos courts on Thursday.

Jaja said, “On the issue of some PDP members being involved in oil subsidy scandal, these are individuals, everybody bears his own cross.

“There were governors who are now facing prosecution as a result of their action and inaction, so it is not a party thing. PDP did not send anybody to go and misbehave. Even if you mention my chairman’s son, he is up to age, assuming he is to go to jail they will not come and jail the National Chairman (of PDP), because he did not send him (his son).

‘He (the son) is a man and he has his household, he has his family. Everybody accounts for his own position and, of course, it has been mentioned, until they are proved guilty, they still remain innocent.

“So, the party cannot just get out and breathe down on them and begin to condemn them. They will be given equal opportunities to defend themselves in a competent court of law.”

On the outcome of the NWC meeting, which was held on Wednesday, he said the party had decided to embark on e-registration of its members.

He said this was the only way members of the party could be determined, adding that “what we do now is just to aggregate the number of our members.”

The NWC meeting, he said, was attended by the national vice-chairmen of the party from the North-West, North-Central, South-East, South-West, and South-South.

He said the meeting also agreed that fresh congresses be held in some states such as Taraba, Ogun, Jigawa, Benue and Ondo, where he said the congresses formally held there were inconclusive.

The Wednesday meeting of the party was its 313th since its formation in 1998.

Jaja said the party would also celebrate 14 years of its existence in August, but promised that the celebration would be low-key.

SOURCE:  The Punch - Nigeria's Most Widely Read Newspaper 27 July 2012.